Fast Food vs. Healthy Food

The controversy of whether fast food is better than home-cooked food has been long in question. There are many common attributes between the two. The first noticeable similarity is that they both provide a variety of choices. There are a number of selections available in fast food restaurants as well as at home. However, the main concern which is healthier and pose less risk to you.
There are currently 160,000 fast food restaurants in America which has more than doubled since 1970, and 50 million are served daily. (3) Coincidently, 33.8 percent of the U.S. population is affected by obesity and 19 percent of children and adolescents are also affected. It's no mystery that one of the major factors behind these numbers is the ever-increasing presence of fast-food diets among American families. On-the-go parents feel they can save precious time at the drive-through while lower-income families believe that the bucket of chicken and the deep-dish pizzas are saving them money. While the former might be true, the latter is an illusion.
Most fast foods are polar opposites of healthy foods. Fast food contains foods that are high in fats, sugars, and starches. These ingredients have almost no nutritional value to the human body. Most of all foods available to us, through fast food are processed and high in MSG. MSG is a concentrated salt added to foods to enhance flavor, this results in unwanted body fat; which can lead to obesity, heart disease and diabetes among other health problems. Healthy foods, by contrast, are high in vitamins, minerals, healthy fats and protein, and they promote energy, good health and longevity. Health experts recommend that people eat primarily whole plant based foods which includes: vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and grains with low to moderate Trans fats as possible. Instead of enjoying the healthy fruits and vegetables Americans tend to…...

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...often cause good nutrition to fall down on the priority list, as evidenced by the substantial consumption of fast food in this country. Work and other obligations can make cooking seem like just another chore, but trading in some of those fast food meals for home-cooked dishes will pay off in the long run.
Lack of Nutritional Variety
One key advantage that home-cooked meals have over fast food is nutritional variety. When you prepare meals at home, you're more likely to include foods from different groups, such as a protein source, vegetable and carb source. While fast food restaurants have improved their offerings to include veggies, fruits and dairy, many people still choose burgers, fried chicken and fries, providing little nutritional benefits. A 2004 study in the "Journal of the American College of Nutrition" found that survey respondents who ate fast food had lower consumptions of healthy picks, including milk and fruits.
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Sodium Intake
You are in control of what goes into your food when you cook meals from scratch -- and watching your salt intake is important. Meals from fast food restaurants, however, are often loaded with sodium. In fact, 57 percent of meals contain more than 1,500 mg of salt, according to a study of major fast food chains published in 2010 in the "Archives of Internal Medicine." In addition, 20 percent of these......

...Why are so many Americans drawn to fast food? Do they realize what goes on behind the scenes? The fast food industry operates by assembly lines. This means cheap labor because the workers specialize in one skill and are classified as unskilled labor. So, our fast food is cheap and we eat it because it's cheap, it fills us up and we have more money in our pockets to spend on other things. But, is this the way it should be?
Fast food is the food of choice for many people because engineers have skewed it to be cheap only to make healthy food become more expensive. In my opinion, organic foods are what we should be putting in our bodies. But the problem is these foods are very expensive. My solution is better regulation of the fast food industry with stricter laws for hiring and producing quality foods.
Unfortunately, it's not just the fast food industry that is ruining Americans health. The meat industry needs better laws and regulations as well. The average person eats 200 lbs of meat per year but if they knew how the animals are treated and what they're being fed, I believe they would reconsider what they're eating. Chickens are being fed antibiotics to make them grow faster and fatter. The slaughtering conditions are many times horrendous with workers treating the animals with no respect and abusing the animals. The reasons for much of this mistreatment is due to the fact that the workers themselves were unhappy with the way they were being treated and would......

...Fast Food
Vs.
Home Cooked Meals
Monica Hill
COM/155
February 9, 2013
Joseph Powell
In today’s society most Americans prefer fast food to home cooked meals. Everyone needs food to survive, however eating fast food rather than a home cooked meal may not be the ideal choice. The difference between fast food and home cooked meals has several differences like preparation time, convenience, and quality.
Health problems seem to be linked to the types of foods we eat. Obesity one of the number one issue in the United States alone. Fast foods are blamed for causing the majority of the obesity problems here in America today. Fast food is a convenient food that is usually faster to get and sometimes ready at the time it is wanted. Ultimately fast food slows the metabolism down with all the calories and unhealthy ingredients that can cause people to be overweight which can lead to obesity if we continue to consume as much as we do on a daily basis. An alternative to fast food is a good home cooked meal. Home cooked meals can help fight the war against obesity. Home cooked meals may take time, that most American’s don’t have these days, however they are much healthier for everyone. Cardiovascular health is affected by the foods put into our bodies. Fast food causes a much higher risk of heart disease because of the extra saturated and trans fats in the foods. Trans fats are found in french fries, fried chicken, fried fish sandwiches, biscuits, fried apples, and......

...Fast Food Approachability
I have spent quarter of my life in a miserable condition. I really feel distressed when I remember my past days. When I was in a refugee camp, one of the organizations distributed rice as a main food. Being a refugee, I did not have proper clothes to wear, a house to live in, and food to eat. I did not have any other options than to eat rice. I ate rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Because of rice, I was able to survive. Therefore, the need of rice has become my want and desire. It does not matter what I eat, I don’t feel I am full until I eat rice. Rice can only make me satisfied, happy, and satiated; after coming to the U.S the environment change and I felt like now I get everything that I didn’t have when I was in my country. But as time pass I learned, America is the fastest moving country in fast food eating. People tend to eat outside of the house. This is one of the main factors that cause obesity. There are lots of reasons that people choose to eat processed foods. Today in our society, time is one of the biggest issues on their schedules because the people in here are always busy working or engaging in some sort of activities. For example, work, college and their personal time consume a lot of time on a daily basis. Besides those activities, all these fast food restaurants, good taste of fast or processed food, and less time to prepare processed food are making people lazy and they ignore to cook at home. It will even be better if at...

...Martin T. Ameling
Teacher: Yonika Willis
GE117 Composition 2
April 28 2011
Fast food portion size vs. nutrition
Fast food portions have grown in size over the years. The smaller portions were not necessarily healthier for the consumer depending on the fast food consumed. As fast food portions have grown so have most American’s waistlines. In this age of bigger is better fast food portion sizes are not necessarily healthily portion sizes. Portion sizes, Nutrition Facts and Government Agencies & Surveys.
Modern portion sizes are 3 to 16 time the recommended serving size, Fast food beverages range from 12oz to 64oz+ depending on the restaurant. “A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Americans consume around 10 percent more calories than they did in the 1970s” According to Monte. “The NHLBI (National Heart, Lung and Blood institute) tells us that a serving of meat should be the size of a deck of cards while one pancake should be the size of a CD.” According to Monte. “While it is clear that the reasons for the epidemic are multifaceted, survey and economic data suggest that much of the rise in obesity can be attributed to an increase in caloric intake” According to Downs, Loewenstein & Wisdom.
The average 12 ounce serving of mountain dew has 170 calories, 0 grams fat, and 46g Crabs and 0 grams protein. According to Monte, The usual suggested serving size is 8oz which translates to 110 Calories & 31g crabs....

...government.
More specifically, the government claims that they are trying to create a healthier America but really what have they done to accomplish this? They created programs such as MyPyramid and MyPlate, which are useful but without the complimenting foods, you can almost deem them useless.
The point in which I am making accuses the government of making our diet into a business. The government suggests that we eat healthy and provide us with guides such as MyPlate, only for us to find that the foods that are most recommended also carry the highest price tag. This causes me to believe that the government may not have our health as their main priority. I find myself thinking this every time I make a trip to the grocery store.
I am proposing that, we the residents of Lebanon County raise awareness of this to our local government authorities and from there it will become recognized nationwide. Solutions to this problem may include tax breaks for producers of healthy goods as well as tax breaks for those who are self-sufficient, people who live off the land so to speak, as well as other monetary incentives to promote a healthy diet. Currently, the main problem arises when “junk food” is heavily discounted when compared to “healthy food”.
This is a serious problem, in my opinion this shows that the government looks at money more highly than the people that it governs. We, the residents of Lebanon, can be the start to the change of this type of ideology of the government......

...Sarat Busari
English 101
Professor O’Connell
April, 22 2014
Fast food and its effects
During the past centuries fast food has become a daily meal for many Americans today. Since the introduction of fast food, Americans have experienced an increase in adverse medical problems such as obesity, and heart attacks at an alarming rate. Fast food is easily accessible and cheap and it causes people to keep buying and eating fast food and it increases America’s obesity rate and diseases that are associated with it and it may lead to painful deaths. Fast food may see a more reasonable choice in this economic down turn but traveling in search for healthier foods that can end up costing around the same price as a fast food meals. Fast food is any food that is quick, convenient, and usually inexpensive, and it’s sometimes hard to resist and people tend to crave these fast foods and eat them on a regular basis which affects the body in increasing the weight and causing people to be obese.
Fast food has made a huge impact on obesity. Fast food restaurants has contributed to the rise of obesity in America serving fatty food which affects the body of millions of Americans in increasing their weight and causing major health problems. Fast-food consumption has increased in the United States over the past years. It’s extremely difficult to eat in a healthy way at a fast-food restaurant because all they will serve is foods that contains fats.
...

...When hungry and in a hurry a lot of people will choose fast food over a fine dining restaurant. Fast food is all around us and sometimes just easier and less time consuming to get. I think here in bullhead there is a fast food restaurant within every 5 miles in any direction when you drive down the freeways. Other types of restaurants like a Fine Dining are scarce and there are only a handful of those in the area. Depending On how you feel and the free time that you have, here are some suggestions to help you decide between grabbing a bite to eat at a fast food restaurant or a diner. While both fast food and fine dining both serve food, fine dining has a longer preparation time to make quality food, whereas fast food is a shorter preparation time and low quality food.
There are different ways to prepare food, but it is distinct between both fast food and fine dining.
When it comes to service anywhere, you probably want someone nice and that can take your order without getting frustrated.
Both have good customer service just on different levels. In fast food you enter the building, order, seat yourself then get your ticket called out. If you are in a hurry there's even drive throughs. On the contrary to fast dining when you enter a higher end establishment you get seated and handed a menu. There is a waiter there to take down your drink. Waiters do good jobs in making sure it stays filled. You place your order at the table. The meal is brought out to you and you get......

...Sex Ads vs. Healthy Food
Ads seems to be the primary subject matter. According to Fowles', people have a number of needs that appeal to their personality. “There are assumptions about personality underlying advertisers' efforts to communicate via assumptions have stood the test, they still need to be aired out.” Individuals, is likely to walk around with a range of unsuccessful urges and motives floating around in their minds. “Lust, ambition, tenderness, and vulnerabilities that are constantly popping up, seeking resolution.” These preferred viewers for the ad is both young males and females, also for men that have ugly wives or Horney old men that never get no sex at home. However, the setting of the commercial takes place on a beach near the ocean with Nina Agdal in her swimsuit laying on a teal color towel in the sand, apparently in connection to the item being promoted, a healthy grilled fish sandwich. Hardee’s is a pretty usual, fast-food restaurant that most of our country associates with obesity and unhealthiness as the current cultural preference is trending towards healthier, natural food options.
The purpose is the model characterized in the advertisement is a white female, likely to be in her twenties. This leads society to believe that the advertisement is put toward young, white fit guys. A group of overweight individuals, children, other females and elderly people are not represented in the commercial, probably because they are not as profitable as the......

...Negative Impacts of Fast Food
America is one the countries that have the most oversize population in the world and every day one of four Americans visits fast food restaurants. Fast food is usually packed with fat, sugar and salt which make it so unhealthy. There are many different reasons people go to fast food restaurants rather than eating at home. People eat at fast food restaurant because it is convenient, cheap, tasty and quick. We no longer live in the good old days when women would stay home to cook, clean, and take care of the kids. Women have invaded the work industry by taking over jobs that in the past only men would have, and now share those jobs with men. Nowadays, most of the women are really busy to go for grocery shopping, come back home, unpack the food, and then cook it; so they prefer to go to fast food restaurant like McDonald’s. Many families are choosing fast food restaurants instead of fancy restaurants in this bad economy situation, because fancy restaurants charge much more money than fast food and people would rather eat at those places with family only on special occasions. However parents know that the fast food doesn’t have good nutrition balance for their children. In addition, some people who don’t have families and they live by themselves visit fast food because of their busy schedule. They are too busy to cook. In conservation with one of the poll on mid March, she says that she works full time and she goes to school part time, so she......

...Fast Food
A fast meal is incredible convenient on a busy day. Fast food restaurants offer quick meals in a short amount of time. What may not be portrayed on the menu is the sodium, calories, and fat intake included. One unfortunate misconception is that young adults are exempt from the health risks of an unhealthy diet. Fast food should not be allowed in schools because fast food is harmful to an adolescents health, there is evidence that suggests fast food leads to obesity, and poor nutrition can negatively affect conduct and intelligence.
Obesity is at an all time high in the United States. An average of two-thirds of the US population is overweight. The percentage of obesity has increased dramatically within the last ten years. Eating fast food once a day may not seem problematic, but over time this amount can possibly lead to an increase in weight. Weight increase can lead to a variety of health concerns. Becoming obese can cause serious sleep and respiratory issues. Sleep apnea, is a condition in which breathing stops while sleeping, obesity is a contributing factor to this disorder. Excessive weight gain can also cause your body to resist insulin which can result in diabetes. A lack of exercise combined with weight gain can cause congestive heart failure.
A typical fast food combo contains around one thousand calories, including a soft drink and fries. The recommended average, according to livestrong.com, is an average of 1500 calories per day......

...Khairul Aznil Alkhaired Bin Kamarulzaman (2010817694)
Muhammad Firdaus Bin Aminuddin (2010601584)
Effects of fast foods among youths
Introduction
Food is one of the main necessitates we need to survive. Food mains goal is to provide our body with vitamins, minerals, and sustenance. Food ,which is supposed to be something safe and good for us, is now a high risk necessitates because of new technology and the way food is being made is so harmful that it is causing many people to become unhealthy to the point that some are dying from food such as fast foods. Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly and any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food (Jennifer, 2003). Fast food consumption has grown dramatically in recent years. The fast food restaurant has permeated every part of our country so much that, in some areas, it seems as though every small city one of the fast food restaurants will be there.
Thesis Statement
There are many effects of fast foods among youths such as fast foods can cause obesity, can lead to many diseases, and can cause depression.
Development of the first main point
One of the effects of fast foods is obesity. A condition in which the body has dangerous quantity of body fat is called obesity. The people who weight more than 20% than their usual weights are classified as obese persons (Alte, Schiff, 1998). Alte and Schiff (1998) also stated that a condition when the body has a lot......

...COM 1103
9/21/2015
Fast food
Today, world economic develops faster, more and more communication appeared in each country and a lot of industries appeared. More and more people can get in touch with new merchandise, they buy new products, enjoy this product which is pulled in from overseas. Such as electric industry, education industry and food manufacture. Because of demand for food is really heavy, so that the food industry is very popular in a person’s lifetime. Fast food occupies a majority in the nutrient industry. In China, more and more fast food appeared, a heap of people wish to eat KFC, McDonald. Because of it is a new food industry, children's interest in this nutrient. On the other way, it is delicious. I suppose the cause of fast food popular is fast and yummy.
In China, as a teenager, we interest in new product, we like to try new things. McDonald's food, unlike the traditional Chinese food, McDonald's food is Fried, is a high energy, high fat food, and very tasty. I like eating fast food, McDonald is my favorite. When I a person at home, I always go to McDonald to eat fast food. Because my parents not at home and no food at home, so that I go to McDonald. In the McDonald, I often buy a hamburger, a French fries and a coke. Sometimes, I will buy an extra food, chicken. It is delicious, I think. On the weekend, I like to go to McDonald's with friends, and then have a complete dinner, complete dinner contains a lot of food and extra toys.......

...people tend to eat outside junk food. Healthy nutritious food has been replaced by new food mantra-JUNK FOOD.
Fast food is a food supplied quickly after placing an order and with limited service. Eating is among the pleasures of life, although it can be bad for someone’s health when they eat fast foods, which have high-refined sugars, saturated fats and sodium, which lead to obesity, diabetes and other adverse health conditions. Everyone should have a second thought before deciding to eat fast foods. This is because there are numerous health risks when eating foods made within a considerably short time. These foods are not taken care of properly, considering factors like the location the food is produced. Despite being easily cooked and bought, the health risks outweigh the satisfaction obtained within five minutes from the food. Therefore, people ought to think keenly before eating fast food. It has be found that due to low prices and marketing strategies adopted by manufacturers has increased consumption of junk food. This research is quite interesting to know why fast food is preferred , how much fast food is consumed ,the ill effects of junk food on health, to render health education to adapt healthy living and to create awareness.
INTRODUCTION
fast food is among the cheapest and easiest way of eating. It is known to safe significant amounts of time and money, especially for individuals coming home from work. As exemplified by the fast food business successes,......

...Fast food restaurants are everywhere in today’s society. They are found in hospitals, attached to fueling stations, in grocery stores, and inside major sports complexes (such as Great American Ball Park). With the many locations of these restaurants, the question must be raised… are fast food restaurants making people fat? That question can be answered with a resounding yes!
In 1968, McDonalds was operating 1,000 restaurants (Schlosser 3); Taco Bell was just getting started and Wendy’s opened its first restaurant in 1969 (About Wendy's). According to Pearson Education’s Info Please website, 13.3% of adults were obese in the 1960s (Info Please). Today, 35.5% of people are obese (Flagel et al. 491). That’s an increase of 22.2%. In the 1970s, Americans spent 6 billion on fast food (Schlosser 3). In the year 2000 alone, Americans spent more than 110 billion (Schlosser 3). Today, there are over 50,000 fast food chains in America according to Google Maps.
What is obesity and why is it a problem? Tabors Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary defines obesity as “an unhealthy accumulation of body fat” (Tabors Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary 1504). Obesity is clinically manifested (diagnosed) when the body mass index is ≥30 kg/m2 (Lewis et al. 2: 1035). Obesity is a problem because not only does it put more strain on the person during physical activity, but it also leads to decreased lung volumes from the heavy abdominal area placing pressure on the diaphragm (Potter et al. 826). ...